Europa Środkowa i Wschodnia w okresie poszukiwania własnej tożsamości politycznej oraz zmian systemowych

Abstract

The paradigm of the political identity of Central and Eastern Europe was being formed on the sidelines of the paradigm of modernization of the region’s states, getting beyond control of the East (authoritarianism) and heading towards Western democracies. In the process of democratization of the countries of the region, the transformation paradigm developed by Western political scientists had to be adapted to the Eastern European reality. The countries of the region underwent a complex process of systemic changes in the political and economic dimension, and some also in the state-building and nation-building dimensions. Three decades of transformation point to a significant group of countries in which democratization has been successful or is heading in the right direction. The second group of states balances between hybrid regimes and non-consolidated democracy, while the third group of countries has failed the experiment of democratization.